Chrysler’s Pentastar logo takes backseat to FCA – Detroit Free Press

Posted: Monday, November 24, 2014

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The familiar Pentastar as seen at the top of the headquarters of Chrysler in Auburn Hills . The company is now known as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, with an FCA logo as its symbol.(Photo: Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo

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The Pentastar logo was created in 1962 by Robert Stanley, at the Lippincott & Marguiles design firm.

“The company is changing again,” said company spokesman Ed Garsten.

FCA became the dominant logo on Chrysler’s corporate site on Oct. 12.

Say goodbye to the Pentastar and hello to FCA.

With the formation of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles now complete, the letters FCA are now appearing everywhere — from the corporate websites to Twitter accounts to the sign to the sign outside Chrysler’s headquarters.

The Pentastar, meanwhile, is largely being phased out — a move that has angered enthusiasts loyal to the Chrysler brand and has spawned a Facebook page and a petition drive to save it.

“Chrysler Group is now part of the newly formed FCA. As such, the spirit of Chrysler and the Pentastar moves forward as part of this new entity, joining the strengths of the previous Fiat S.p.A. and Chrysler Group LLC,” Chrysler said in a statement. “Both have adopted the FCA logo.”

The decision to adopt FCA as a corporate logo won’t affect the Chrysler brand, or any of the eight car and truck brands sold by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. And it also doesn’t mean Chrysler plans to remove the Pentastar from the top of its headquarters building in Auburn Hills.

“The biggest wealth that a group like FCA has is the variety of brands and the fact that all of these brands are so different,” Francois said. “So I need to cultivate the difference between the brands.”

Francois also said there aren’t any plans for an FCA marketing campaign.

Nevertheless, FCA will be increasingly used to refer to the corporation.

The transition began in January, after Fiat became the 100% owner of Chrysler and the FCA logo was adopted.

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The new Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, FCA, sign that revealed at the front entrance of the Chrysler World Headquarters in Auburn Hills on Tuesday, May 6, 2014.(Photo: Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press)

On May 6, the day a new five-year plan was adopted, Chrysler changed the sign that greets employees and visitors at the entrance of its headquarters to FCA.

Then, on Oct. 12 — the day Fiat Chrysler Automobiles cleared its last regulatory hurdles and the new company name became official — the logo on the corporate websites for both Fiat and Chrysler changed to FCA.

“From the perspective of most consumers, this really is a non-issue,” said Tim Calkins, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “Consumers know Chrysler, they know Jeep, they know Dodge. The name of the corporate parent normally doesn’t mean much.”

Calkins said the decision to lean heavily on FCA as the identity of the company reminds him of LVMH Group and ABInBev — two European-based global corporations that own a broad range of brands.

“The interesting thing is that they did not go with a totally new name,” Calkins said. “The name is these two that are sort of brought together.”

The FCA and Pentastar logos

The FCA logo was designed by RobilantAssociati, an Italian brand advisory and design firm.

Fiat Chrysler said it wanted the firm to create a new name, logo, house style and entire corporate identity, “whose universal and essential forms are strongly expressive and evocative.”

FCA, the company said, “helps create a transition from the past, without severing the roots, while at the same time reflecting the global scope of the Group’s activities.”

The Pentastar logo was created by Robert Stanley, at the Lippincott & Margulies design firm in 1962.

“We wanted something simple, a classic, dynamic but stable shape for a mark that would lend itself to a highly designed, styled product,” Stanley said in a blog in 2007. “What that meant, basically, was a classic geometric form.”